Border Report Live

The government shutdown is affecting services to help those claiming asylum, as well as employers verifying immigration status to hire workers. In the latest episode of Border Report Live, correspondents Julian Resendiz and Sandra Sanchez discuss how immigration services are being altered during the ongoing government shutdown.

Most places in Latin America remain relatively safe for Americans to visit. But travelers should exercise caution in three hot spots where gangs control the streets or drug cartels are at war with each other.
That’s the gist of the annual international risk assessment published this week by Virginia-based Global Guardian security firm.
In this episode, we talk to Michael Ballard the director of intelligence for Global Guardian.

A group of investors is trying to reopen a sugar mill that closed due to drought and lack of water payments from Mexico.
The sugar mill in Santa Rosa, Texas — the only one in the state and one of only three in the nation — closed in February 2024, taking with it hundreds of jobs and affecting hundreds more.
The 52-year-old sugar mill, at its peak, generated $100 million annually.
In this episode, we'll talk about how Texas Agriculture Secretary Sid Miller says thousands of jobs could be revitalized through this deal to reopen the sugar mill.

The Department of Homeland Security announced that it intends to waive dozens of environmental laws to expedite border wall construction in California.
A Notice of Determination filed by DHS Secretary Kristi Noem on Tuesday states there is “presently an acute and immediate need to construct additional physical barriers and roads in the vicinity of the border of the United States in order to prevent unlawful entries into the United States in the project area.”
In this episode of Border Report Live, correspondent Salvador Rivera welcomes researchers Christina Aiello and Myles Traphagen of the Salt Lake City-based Wildlands Network.

Researchers say the rapid expansion of immigration detention in the U.S. is partly to blame for an increase in the deaths of people in federal custody.
Since January, 15 people have died in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody, including a migrant who was killed on Wednesday outside a detention facility in Dallas, and a Mexican man who fell ill at a California facility and died at the hospital this week.
In this episode of Border Report Live, correspondent Sandra Sanchez speaks with Austin Kocher, a professor at Syracuse University who is part of independent projects that collect immigration data from ICE.
In the past, he has published countless reports on immigration-related topics like capacity at detention facilities and the outcomes of immigration hearings in the courts.

A California lawmaker has filed a bill to ban the use of military drones to monitor demonstrators in the U.S. following protests in Los Angeles during the summer.
According to the Los Angeles Times, the government in June deployed MQ-9 Predator drones to monitor the protests that followed the deployment of National Guard troops to the city.
In this episode of Border Report Live, correspondent Julian examines how border officials have and continue to use drones along the border. The National Guard, which has been deployed to the Texas-Mexico border for years, often uses drones as part of its border mission.

The City of McAllen, Texas recently commissioned a study to track shoppers who come to the U.S. from Mexico. The study involved monitoring shoppers’ cellphones in the Mexican border city of Reynosa, and after they crossed the border into McAllen.
The study took place on key shopping dates, like Black Friday and some days leading up to Christmas. Researchers were able to determine where people shop, how much money they spent and how Mexican shoppers affected the local economy, among other things.
In this episode of Border Report Live, correspondent Sandra Sanchez speaks with Belinda Roman, who conducted the study. Roman is an associate professor of economics at St. Mary’s University in San Antonio.
She discussed some of the results and methodologies to obtain the data.

U.S. border officials often notify news outlets of massive drug busts at ports of entry. Most recently, U.S. Customs and Border Protection said that in August, the San Diego Office of Field Operations seized 10,000 pounds of narcotics worth $24 million.
In this episode of Border Report Live, host Rudy Mireles and correspondent Julian Resendiz welcome David J. Bier, an expert on legal immigration, border security, and interior enforcement.
Biers is the Director of Immigration Studies at the Cato Institute and occupies the Selz Foundation Chair in Immigration Policy. He recently published the results of a study titled, “US Citizens Were 80 Percent of All Convicted Drug Traffickers in 2024.”
He discussed how the U.S. policies, like military strikes on boats off the coast of Venezuela or targeting migrants won’t change the fact that U.S. citizens are the overwhelming majority of traffickers.